A Texan conservative Anglican -- yes, a square peg -- ponders both churchly and worldly things and enjoys his new church.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Paris, Texas (1984)

This
month is the 30th anniversary of the U. S. release of the great
movie, Paris, Texas.

Yesterday,
it was mild shock to stumble upon this (and a reminder that I am getting old). I was also pleasantly surprised, when
reading at wikipedia (spoiler alert), that the movie was an inspiration for
U2’s The Joshua Tree and that it was
perhaps the favorite movie of Kurt Cobain.Its influence is greater than I had thought, and rightly so.

I
have only the vaguest memory of what prompted me to watch this movie in the
80’s.I think I read a review that
interested me.And I know I was
very interested in Nastassja Kinski if you know what I mean, and I think you do.I am pretty sure I did not see it in
the theaters but on VHS.

I
do know I was captivated and moved.This Texan appreciated the starkness of the settings and of the
screenplay.I appreciated both the
simplicity of the story, and that the movie took its time and with small
details in telling it.There is
the simple genuine interaction between the characters.And then the conclusion . . . I cannot
recall any conclusion to a movie that so moves me.I still cannot recall it without my eyes getting moist.

Now
as you can probably tell, I am not much of a movie reviewer. (Heck, as my
friends can tell you, I rarely watch movies anymore.I do not have the patience and attention span for most of
them.For me, life is too short to
watch most movies.) Roger Ebert has written an excellent review (spoiler alert).So feel free to read that.

There
is a second reason I am noting Paris,
Texas.The movie was an
important influence on me as I wrote Pilot
Point.The image of man alone
in the desert, the importance of the road, themes of the torments of repeated loss
and of the risk of reaching out, attention to detail while keeping the story simple
and unhurried, the technique of meeting the main character in the middle of his
utter aloneness and then slowly finding out what led to it, a conclusion that
is moving yet marked by uncertainty – all these aspects of my novel were
influenced by the masterful use of the same in Paris, Texas.

Pilot Point is a very different work
than the movie with a different structure and plot.And I certainly would not presume that it is a great work
like this movie.But I am among
those who owe a debt to Paris, Texas.